This is a U.S. national phase application under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7371 of International Patent Application No. PCT/BR99/00082 filed on Sep. 23, 1999 and claims the benefit of Brazilian Application No. PI 98045178-9 filed on Oct. 8, 1998. The International Application was published in English on Apr. 20, 2000 as International Publication No. WO 00/21840 under PCT Article 21(2).
The present invention refers to a can obtained in a metallic sheet and of the type comprising a tubular body, with the lower edge affixing a bottom wall and with the upper edge affixing an annular upper wall portion, which may take the form of a structural ring and whose inner peripheral edge defines a seat for receiving and retaining a press fittable lid. Particularly, the invention relates to the provision of a can of the type mentioned above and used to contain the paint white base, which may receive pigments for colour adjustments at the time of purchase by the final user.
It has been increasingly more common the commercialization of paints, which may be water or oil based, in the basic white colour, the achievement of the colour desired by the final user being obtained by blending, either manually or mechanically, pigments which are calculated to impart the desired colour to the amount of white base contained in the can.
According to this system of commercialization, when the user is acquiring the paint, the can containing an amount of white base received from the paint manufacturer has its lid opened for the introduction of pigments and subsequently closed to allow said can to be agitated, aiming at obtaining the homogenization of the blend, as well as the the desired colour of the paint. In other systems, the blend of the white base with the pigments is made by means of a mixing-agitating device, which is introduced inside the can through the opening onto which said lid is seated and which remains opened during this operation.
In the first case, once the agitation operation with the reclosed lid has finished, the latter has to be reopened, in order to allow the visual inspection of the blended paint, said lid then being reclosed so that the can may be transported by the consumer. This procedure, however, has several inconveniences. The opening operations before the pigmentation and after the agitation operation are carried out with the lid carrying, inferiorly, a certain amount of paint which, as a function of the dimensions of said lids, is sufficient to cause splashes, being practically impossible to avoid the damage caused by dirt in the operation area. Moreover, the opening and closing operations of said lids are rather complex and take a long time due to their diameters, particularly the 18 liter and 1 gallon cans, making difficult and extending the pigmentation process at the time the paint is purchased by the final consumer.
Even in the cases in which mixing the pigments and the white base is carried out with the lid in the opened condition, spreading the paint is not avoided with the movement of the can, neither are avoided the opening and closing operations, which are only reduced to half, since the inspection is made with the can still open. Also in these cases, the exposure of the amount of white base through the large upper opening of the can facilitates the contact thereof with the external environment during the agitation operation, allowing a certain undesirable degree of exposition of the paint contained in the can, as well as splashes of the paint on the upper wall of the can.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a can of the type considered herein and which may have its content of paint white base selectively pigmented at the time of purchase by the final user, through a fast and simple procedure which minimizes the production of dirt caused by splashes of paint in the environment, as well as the exposure of the paint to the outside environment, allowing the easy visual inspection of the amount of the pigmented and homogenized paint.
The objective above is achieved by providing a metallic can of tubular body, with the upper edge affixing an annular upper wall portion, with the peripheral edge of its discharge opening defining a seat onto which a removable lid is seated.
According to the invention, one of the parts defined by the upper wall portion and by the removable lid is provided with an inspection opening, with a cross section substantially smaller than that of said said discharge opening and with its peripheral wall defining a seat for receiving and axially retaining a respective auxiliary lid, which is also removable and constructed in a transparent material.
The construction defined above allows that the inside of the can, having an amount of paint white base, be accessed upon easily and quickly removing the auxiliary lid, making possible to apply a pigment shower to said amount of white base.
After the application of the pigment, the auxiliary lid in transparent material may be closed again, in order to permit the agitation of the can to homogenize the pigmented paint, the visual inspection of which may be made by the consumer through the transparent auxiliary lid itself, with no need of removing said lid.
In the cases in which the blend is carried out by a mixing-agitating device, the latter is introduced inside the can through the inspection opening, which is only closed by the auxiliary lid after the homogenization has finished.
In both procedures, the opening of the auxiliary lid, whose diameter is much smaller than that of the removable lid, minimizes the risk of splashes of paint which spoil the environment in which the pigmentation is carried out.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the discharge opening and the inspection opening are provided with violation evidencing means, when said violation occurs by the undue opening of either of the lids thereof.